Catch lock for attache cases and the like



July 7, 1925. I 1,545,398

C. W. CHENEY QATCH LOOK FOR ATTACH CASES AND THE LIKE Filed Oct. 28, 1924 s Sheets Sh'et 1 July.7, 1925."

' c. w. CHENEY I CATCH LOOK FOR ATTACHE CASES AND THE LIKE Filed 001'" 28, 1924 3 Sheats-She't 2 flaw/Er July 1925. 1,545,398

- c. w. CHENEY cA'rcHLbcK FOR ATTAcH CASES AND THE LIKE Filed Oct. 28, 1924 5 Sheets She'et s 67/11/765 JIW/iam Cid/Icy,

Patented July 7, 1925.

UNITED STATES CHARLES WILLIAM CHENEY, OF BIRMINGHAM; ENGLAND.

CATCH LOCK FOR ATTACHE GASES AND -THE LIKE.

Application filed October 28, 1924. Serial No. 746,372.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, CHARLES WILnIAM CHENEY, subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Factory Road, Soho, Birb'mingham, England,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Catch Locks for Attache Cases and the like, of which the following is a specification.

This ,invention relates tov improvements 1 in key operatedcatch locks wherein a slidable bolt is moved by a spring. into fasten ing position and may be manually withdrawn against the pressure. of said spring by a thumb pieceand be locked in fastenif) ing positionby means of a key, said bolt therefore at one time constituting a spring influenced catch and at another time a lock. The invention provides for use in this type of catcl1 -l0ck a keyoperated spring,

0 containing locking unit comprising a plate or bar and a limb spring carried thereby, the distinctive feature of. the plateibeing that it is cut away in such manner as to I forma key sweep against. which the bit of a key may bear to slide the plate or bar, and the distinctive feature of the spring being that it is so disposed upon the plate that a limb of said spring crosses said key sweep so as to also be acted upon by the bit of the key, the spring limb thus acting as a tumbler and either the platefor the'spring acting as a blocking piece against a projection or stop on the catch-lock casing to prevent the manual withdrawal of the bolt.

In desirable forms of the invention the limb spring, notonly constitutes a, tumbler but also bears against the'bolt when thelatteris withdrawn, so that there is onlyone spring inQthe' catch-lock for both locking and unlocking and for automatically aCtuatin thebolt. lfiherei may, however, be an additional spring for automatically actuating the bolt.

The catch lock of the invention is particularly s uit able for use in attache cases, bags,

boxes and such like, and the locking unit of the; invention is useful for general applica tion tocatch-flocks for such articles, particularly. since itis capable of being handled as n a one-piece unit; that is to say, the plate or bar and the limb spring are assembled as one piece capable of being easilyhandled and simplyapplied. A

The. drawings. forming part hereof show out the invention, all of which however have the same common characteristic features providing a key operated spring contaming locking piece or unit. Figs. 1a) 10 show one arrangement, Figs. 11 to li lafurther arrangement, andFigs. '15 and 16. a still further arrangement; f

Fig.1 is a face view of a catchlock embodying the invention. I

Fig. 2 isa back view of the catch-lock shown in Fig. 1. r i

Fig. 3 is a view moved. 1 i

' Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are differentrepresentations of thelockingunit or piece. shown in Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive whose construction and operation is the essential feature ofthe -in vention. i i F Fig. 7 is a cross section on thedotted lines with the front plate re- 7+7, Fig. 5.

Figs. 8 and 9 are. different views of the bolt proper of the catch lock. y r

Fig. 10 is a view .of the backplate separately showing the stops against which the locking unit operates. f 1

.Fig. 11 is a view, similar to Fig. 3, of another embodiment of the invention. I Figs. 12, 18 and l l are, respectively, an elevation, an end view, and a top. plan view of the locking unit shown. in Fig. 11. V

Fig; 15 is a view, similar to Figs. 3 and 11,1 of another embodiment of the invention, an y L Fig. 16 is a View in'elevation ofa of the bolt shown in Fig. 15 p 1 Referring to the drawings and particularly toFigsml to 7 the locking unit takes the form of a short lengthplate or bar a portion turned over at its longitudinal edgesfint o U shape ,as represented at a? and a (Fig. 7). 9 A double limbed' spring a is disposed against the plate so that its lim bs are under the turned over "longitudinal edges .afore said; that is to say, the limbo is under the turned over edge (1 and the limb 0 under theturned over edgea said spring being put in compression between these edges The free end of the limb 0 is turned at rightangles as at c and projects beyond the outer face of the plate, as clearly shown in 0 Figs. ,6 and Land also works in a cross'slot a" of the plate. v,

r A feature intheconst'ruction of the plate or bar a is that itslongitudinalv edged is cutaway, as .etjd, to provide opposed edges ll.

against which the bit of a key may operate to bodily slide the locking unit to one of two positions, and afurther feature of the locking piece is that the limbo of the double limb springccrosses this cut away por: tion d in order so that the bit of the key may operate againstiit; so ithat' thelimo-c constitutes a spring tumbler. 7 It will be clear from Figs. lto 7 that the assembled unit constitutes a single part or member for convenience in handling, the

double limbed spring being included practically as part 'o'f'the plate While under coinpressi'on, and being prevented from moving casing in manner hereinafter, 'described, but

otherwise the st'ruction. p Ie is the front plate of the catch-lock, is the back plate, and g is the bolt mounted catch-lock isfof ordinary eonto slide within a recess f of the back plate between said back plate and theiront plate. The front and back, plates. constitute the casing of the catch-lock.

The bolt 9 P'lElIQ-lik. It hasa nose end 9 a key peg 9 a shaped gap 9 constitut ing a gate, positioning bars g for the unit raised therefrom, and'holes g whereby a hand operated -button h, formed with a key hole k may be connected to it. I l

The locking unit Figs. 4 to 7 is placed across the bolt 9 so'that'its longitudinal edge a engages under the bars g and its rightangled end 0 engages thegates' g' f lVhen putting the unit into such position the I tumbler limb c of the spring isjput" into further compression, so that the locking unit is self-holding to the bolt 5/. Y The back plate {forming part of the catch-lock casing is provided fat '1, F, with stops.

The nose end of theib'olt adapted to ng ge a mple or eye in the inanner usual n his typ'e "of catch'-locki fa stening.

Fig. 3 the fright angled "end 0' .of the spring is shown as flying in the gate 9% and against the back plate stop and that the locking unit is'shown' as'fclear of the stopgf. In Fthis position the bolt. loan be 'manualjly Withdrawn "from the button against the pressure. or {the spring limb {03, which operates normally to actuate the boltijg.

plied to the key post, first lift's li'mb 0 o 29 t j en 1f t 1 h pi eb s sa 9% are:- w en h ima e me i an, the *"bit operates against the airway portion 05 to bodily slide the locking unit across the bolt uptil end said unit moves behind the stop f" of the back plate. In this position of the locking unit the right-angled end. 0 of the spring is at the other side ofthe V piece of the gate g. So long-as the stopiafl'is in the path of the locking unit the bolt 9 is locked.

The action of the key on the locking unit for unlocking is exactly thereverse of that just described. The bit first moves the limb spring tumbler, and then moves the'Whole unit. i i

The embodiment of the invention shown in Figs. 11 to 14 is very similar to that shown in'Figs. 1 to 10. i v

'Thesame letters of reference are used for the same parts. v v

The bolt 9 lies'in a recess f of the back plate f, and the locking unit is applied across the bolt within the recess, the bolt being cut away at s 'for the purpose.

A peg g" standingup rigidly from the 'recess forms the gate for the right-angled end 0 of the spring 0, and this peg and'an'other peg f form back stops again'st which the lockingunit, comprisingplate a and spring 0 slides, said locking unitbeingonly capable of. moving transversely across the bolt. The boltwg has its resilient'action against the limb c of the spring which abuts against the edge s of the cut-away part 3 of the bolt. Fig. ll shows the unlocked position of theparts.

YVhen the end of the locking unit engages behind'the edge 8 of the goutaway par't'of the bolt the bolt is locked against Withdrawal.v N p I The'p'latea of the locking unit is formed with a cut-away part d and the limb 0 0i. the spring crosses this cut-away part the same. as in the former arrangementfit being clear that the bit of the key operaites both on the spring limb 0 and on the edges of the cut-away part d for locking and unlocking thebolt. i

In the arrangement Figsi 'itfiland 16*,the

locking unit is disposedlongitudinally the bolt instead oftransversely. V

Said locking unit comprises the plate ,or' bar a and the double limbed spring 0. as formerly,;the one limb wa of thespring Joeing formed with a right-angled end 1' a which co-acts with the gate of :the slidable bolt'g, and which also is adapted to contact against a stop f? projecting from fthe innerrface of the ,ba'c'k late 7, which {stop is so placed that the spring end 0* only contacts with it w 'hen thejloeliing unit a, go, "is in "looking. 'positiomfthat is to say in the position difl'erent Iifrom tha t shown by Fig. 15 I 4 i The bolt 'is pressed j wa d .into lock ingposition by'the additional diusls-iimba spring at, the spring 0 acting only as a spring tumbler and a stop to co-act with the stop f.

In the construction just describedthe one longitudinal edge of the locking unit engages under the positioning bar 9 of the bolt. The key engages the key post g and operates first upon the limb 0 of the spring 0 and then upon the cut-away part 01 in the manner before described to move the locking unit into either of two positions, unlocking as in Fig. 15, and locking when the rightangled end 0* of the spring comes into position in front of the stop f.

Having now described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A key-operated catch-lock comprising,

a casing, stops carried by the casing, a manu ally operable bolt slidably mounted within the casing and a key-operated spring containing locking unit carried by the bolt and comprising a rigid member and a limb spring carried by said member, said member being provided with a key sweep and the limb spring being so disposed upon the member that one of its limbs crosses said key sweep to be also acted upon by the bit of the key, the spring limb acting as a tumbler and said member co-operating with the stops on the casing to prevent the withdrawal of the bolt.

2. A key-operated catch-lock comprising a casing, stops carried by the casing, a manually operable bolt slidably mounted within the casing and a key-operated spring containing locking unit carried by the bolt and comprising a rigid member and a limb spring carried by said member, said mem her being provided with a key sweep, the limb spring being so disposed upon the member that one of its limbs crosses said key sweep to be also acted upon by the bit of the key, the spring limb acting as a tumbler and said member co-operating with the stops on the casing to prevent the withdrawal of the bolt, said spring of the unit also serving as a bolt spring.

3. A key-operated catch-lock comprising a casing, stops carried by the casing, a manually operable bolt slidably mounted within the casing and a key-operated spring containing locking unit carried by the bolt and comprising a rigid member and a limb spring carried by said member being provided with a key sweep and the limb spring being so disposed upon the member that one of its limbs crosses said key sweep to be also acted upon by the bit of the key, the spring limb acting as a tumbler and either said member co-operating with the stops on the casing to prevent the withdrawal of the bolt,

said locking unit or piece being arranged transversely of the bolt and being so mounted on the latter that it and thebolt may be safely and conveniently handled as one piece.

4. A key-operated catch-lock comprising a casing, stops carried by the casing, a manu ally operable bolt slidably mounted within the casing and provided with positioning bars, and a key-operated spring-containing locking unit carried by the bolt and comprising a rigid member and a limb sprin carried by said member being provided with a key sweep, the limb spring being so disposed upon the member that one of its limbs crosses said key sweep to be also acted upon by the bit of the key, the spring limb acting as a tumbler and said member co-operating with the stops on the casing to prevent the withdrawal of the bolt.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand. a

CHARLES WILLIAM CHENEY. 

